Publisher: Berkley
Published: January 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0425271650
Genre: Cozy
Mystery
Format: Print
Obtained via: Publisher
Reviewed by
name and email address: Gina Ginalrmreviews@gmail.com
Managing
the Bonaparte House, a historic landmark dating back to Napoleon’s
incarceration on Elba, Georgie Nikolopatos is at a cross-roads. Married for about 20 years with a grown
daughter Georgie is coming to terms with the fact that her husband is gay. She’s not quite ready to part ways however. Their daughter, Calista doesn’t know and
neither does Spiro’s mother, Sophia.
Meanwhile local builder, Kevin has been in pursuit of Georgie. She’s giving a relationship with him some
serious consideration especially when he openly declares himself to her while
taking her over to the Castle to spend the night with her friend Liz while the
Ghost Squad TV shows looks into some mysterious activities in Bonaparte
House. On their way, however, they come
upon a body floating in St. Lawrence River and it turns out to be rival
restaurant owner, “Big Dom” Domenic DiTomasso.
On
the heels of Big Dom’s death Spiro goes missing and even his boyfriend doesn’t know
where he is. Complicating things are a
series of mysterious notes and emails demanding Georgie turn “it” over or she
won’t see Spiro alive again. Can she
locate the mysterious object before Spiro joins Big Dom in the great beyond?
Susannah
Hardy’s FETA ATTRACTION is what I think of as a “kitchen sink” book. It’s like the author had a list of story
elements that seem to work and/or had some advice that she needed to include
certain categories of people or events and threw it all in hoping something
would stick. For me, nothing stuck.
The
mystery of looking for “IT” is actually a pretty good one. Hardy could have written a fantastic straight
out mystery of the Bonaparte treasure.
All Big Dom’s death did was to fulfil the murder element of a cozy
mystery but really very little of the book had to do with looking for his
killer. And the whole bit about the
Ghost Squad had me scratching my head wondering why it was even in there except
to bump up the word count and maybe be a red herring.
The
descriptions of Bonaparte House are wonderfully descriptive and Sophie is a
hoot.
If
Hardy wrote a straight out mystery I’d read it because her imagination and
writing lend itself solidly in that direction.
This series, however, I can’t see myself continuing.
This is an objective review and not an endorsement of
this book.
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